[url]http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=8&theme=&usrsess=1&id=13856[/url]

USA cuts ties with Iran

Press Trust of India
WASHINGTON, May 25. — Washington has suspended contacts with Teheran and may also consider “public and private actions” to “destabilise” the Iranian government. The US move follows intelligence inputs that Al-Qaida activists hiding in Iran had a hand in the Riyadh bombings, a media report said here today.

Senior officials of the Bush administration will meet on Tuesday to discuss the strategy towards Iran, with Pentagon officials suggesting actions that could lead to a popular uprising to topple the government, the Washington Post quoted administration officials as saying. The State Department appears inclined to accept such an aggressive policy if Iran does not take visible steps to deal with suspected Al-Qaida activists before Tuesday.

Though President Mr George W Bush had termed Iran as part of an “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea last year, signs of engagement between Iran and the USA had emerged before and during the Iraq war. But after the 12 May bombings, Washington cancelled a planned meeting with Iranian officials, after intelligence intercepts about the role of Al-Qaida men hiding in the country in the attacks that killed 34 people, including nine suicide bombers.

Earlier this week, US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of harbouring Al-Qaida activists, a charge Teheran has vehemently denied.

An administration official told Washington Post that fewer than a dozen Al-Qaida members appear to be located in an isolated area of northeastern Iran, but it was not clear how much control the government has over the area. “I don’t think the elected government knows much about it,” he said.

I'm not sure where all of this is heading with Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, etc. Most of these countries in the Middle East are merely tolerating our presence. At some point there patience will wear out. Are we prepared to take on the entire region? Just how far are we willing to go?

You make a very good point Cougar.

It might be better/easier if first we stabilized Iraq and get them running well and on their own. Then we may be seen more as a liberator than as an empirical conquerer.

But we will always be "unbelievers." [;)]

I think between Israel and our bases in Iraq- (we're planning on having three)we'll have enough presence in that region to be able to do whatever is necessary.

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